The Disciplines of Silence & Solitude

Prayer

Father this evening we ask that you will speak to us Lord, Jesus I ask that you will help us quiet our hearts, our minds, our souls and any distractions that might come against us so that we can hear from you today. Speak Lord…

THEN BE IN SILENCE FOR 3-5 MINUTES

Ask for responses as to what people where thinking about during that time in silence…

Today we are going to be talking about prayer… and specifically the Spiritual Disciplines of Solitude and Silence.

I fear that so many of us today are so busy, and we make so many excuses as to why we are not meeting with God on a regular basis in our devotions.

We feel blessed when we take 5 minutes to read our bible, so I can imagine, me trying to sell you on the benefits of sitting in solitude and silence is not going to be an easy task. But my desire is not to add something else to your life, to make you even busier, but I desire during these next few weeks that when we talk about a new spiritual discipline, that you will simply try it. If you have a set devotional time, take a few minutes out of that time to devote to this new discipline and see what the Lord will do with it. He may not do anything, he may simply tell you that this one isn’t for you, but it may just be the key to plugging you into the very presence of God.

Solitude- finding lonely places

Silence- finding a quiet place to listen, and not speak.

When thinking about these definitions, how do they compare with any preconceived notions or definitions that you have heard before?

If you are willing to share, do you have any experience practicing these disciplines?

I have heard many people say they want to/they desire to hear God speak to them. I have to ask, have you passionately pursued hearing God’s voice?

Prayer is a conversation, but I fear that in our teaching of prayer over the course of the last 50 years, we have spent way to much time focusing on the intercessory, petition, thanksgiving and daily bread prayers. We model our prayer life after Jesus’ teachings on prayer instead of his model of prayer.

The Discipline of Solitude- finding lonely places

Luke 5:15-16

“Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Mark 1:35

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

Matthew 14:13–21 NIV

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” 16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. 18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Matthew 14:22–27 NIV

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Before each of these miracles, Jesus was alone, praying to his Father in heaven.

It’s no surprise that he commands his disciples to find lonely places so that they can pray,

Matthew 6:5-6 Go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.

Matthew 6:5–6 NIV

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

It is truly amazing to me how easily distracted we can become. Jesus knew this as well, that is why he said its good to have a place you can go to that is quiet, free from distraction so that you can pray openly to your Father.

In the book, Experiencing the Presence of God, A.W. Tozer lists 3 hindrances on the pathway to experiencing the presence of God.

3 Hindrances:

#1- Giving God Leftovers

- too busy making a living

- too busy letting our kids sports dictate our schedules

- too busy

#2- Constantly Seeking After Pleasure

- “Another hinderance is the constant seeking after pleasure. There are the physcial pleasures: comforts, various vices, food and the rest. And there are mental pleasures, such as social pleasures, gambling, and amusements and the reading of fiction. There are aesthtic pleasures: art, music, higher learning and sophisticated culture. All these put together simply give pleasant sensations, the same sensation a baby gets by sucking his thumb. The whole human race has simply grown up seeking pleasure so that we are a race of grownup thumb-suckers. We give over out time to acquiring a pleasant sensation when we ought to give over out time to the advancing of our souls.” A.W. Tozer in Experiencing God’s Presence.

#3- Letting Truth Leak from Our Heart

- this is why new year’s resolutions are so hard

- this is why you can hear a message and have it touch your heart deeply and move you to a closer walk on Sunday, but by Wednesday you are back struggling against the everyday affairs of this world.

To combat these hinderances, we need to have a routine of devoting our souls to spiritual discipline. To cross training them so that we can walk an a more intimate relationship with the Father.

Every spiritual giant in Scripture and the greats of church history knew this. And so they devoted themselves to finding lonely places to passionately pursue our Father.

The Discipline of Silence

Matthew 6:6-8

The second discipline is that of finding quiet places where you can pursue hearing God’s voice.

Jesus said, find a solitary place, a quiet place and don’t just keep babbling. Yes, you should ask God for things,

Yes, you should enter his gates with thanksgiving in your hearts,

Yes, you should enter his courts with praise

Yes, you should petition him and intercede for others,

But remember, I want you to at least try this discipline this week, test it out.

Psalm 62:1 “For God alone my soul waits in silence;

from him comes my salvation.” ESV

It doesn’t have to be long. For some of you, this mornings exercise of 3 minutes was all you could handle, for others, you can easily find yourself sitting for over an hour, listening to his still small voice and enjoying his presence.

The point is to try and clear your mind, and meditate on him.

“Silence helps me to fix my attention on Jesus. It takes practice, because usually when I first come in silence, my mind is jumping all over the place. My to do list is screaming at me. Problems are present to me. I don’t give up; instead I keep turning my loving attention to Jesus, because i long for Him. In silence I come to Him, not for what He can give me, not for some answer to prayer, not for some solution to a problem, not for some comfort for a heartache, not for some healing for a pain. I come to Him and Him alone.” Rob Reimer in River Dwellers

“For God alone my soul waits in silence.”

This is hard y’all. Youinz

The point is to listen, and not speak.

Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that He is God.”

The thing is, so many of us have so much going on all the time, that silence is a very hard discipline to learn. We are constantly bombarded today with input. TV’s, Radio’s, Cell Phones, Facebook, we are constantly plugged in to the world and we are not finding time to retreat to lonely places and listen for God.

I call this stuff white noise.

DEER ANTLER STORY.

Listening for God:

1 Kings 19:1–18 NIV

1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” 3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

Elijah the prophet just had this amazing experience on Mount Carmel where he called down fire from heaven and destroyed 500 prophets of Baal.

He went under attack- Ahab and Jezebel wanted him destroyed so he fled for his life.

We want God to show up in the powerful wind or the earthquake or the fire, but I think he really wants us to quiet ourselves enough to hear his still small voice.

It’s in those places when we stop speaking and start listening that we can hear him.

It may take some time and some practice to be able to clear our minds enough to hear God’s still small voice.

There are a lot of distractions out there that want to keep you from hearing it, but when you push through, when you make it a habit of listening to God, you will find your prayer life revitalized! You will comfort in the arms of your Father, find a freshness to your walk with Jesus and you will find an infinite companion in the Holy Spirit.

Tips for developing the disciplines of Solitude and Silence

- Schedule a time

- Find a quiet place (distraction free)

- Bring a pen and paper

- When a thought comes that distracts you, write yourself a reminder

- Ask God to quiet your thoughts and free your mind from distraction

- Start small (3-5 minutes) and grow

- Set a Timer

- For those of you who are visual, paint a blank canvas for God to start to paint on.

- Meditate on Scriptures that focus your attention on God

Weekly Exercise:

During your devotional time this week, I want you to try and sit in solitude and sit in silence.